Dr M N Wankhede, on his 100th birth centenary, is remembered for mapping the Dalit vidrohi canon and urging writers to speak out, linking India’s caste struggle with global movements for justice

A new Marathi volume titled Krantdarshi Dr M N Wankhede highlights his impact

What happens when the architect of a rebellion — someone who ought to be known to all — remains largely unknown? I realised this when I came across a newly published volume marking the birth centenary of Dr M N Wankhede (1924–1978).

The Ambedkarite thinker, fierce essayist, and mentor of the Dalit rebellious canon is, of course, known in academic circles, but not in the national or regional consciousness. It is to him that the arc of Marathi Dalit writing (and its translations) can be traced. From Baburao Bagul’s Sood (whose foreword he wrote) through Daya Pawar’s Baluta, Laxman Mane’s Upara, Baby Kamble’s Jina Amucha, and Urmila Pawar’s Aaydaan, the genre found its most forceful voice in memoir and autobiography — work that today stands translated in several foreign languages and remains a matter of pride in Maharashtra. Behind this lineage stood Wankhede, who wrote, spoke, and organised around the need for rebellious literature that would name oppression and speak in its own cadence. His years were few, but his impact was decisive: through his essays, speeches, institution-building, travel and study abroad, and his work at Aurangabad’s (now Sambhajinagar) Milind College, he shaped the very definition of rebellion in letters.

Dr Wankhede (second row, third from left) and other students travelling to UK with Babasaheb Ambedkar

A new Marathi volume titled Krantdarshi Dr M N Wankhede — which includes the scholar’s select English quotes — edited by senior litterateur Yashwant Manohar, brings together some 60 scholars from across Maharashtra. Manohar excerpts from........

© Midday